It's not Nintendo's fault they make software that people want. If what you say is true, then the common knowledge that you need third party support to win is basically right out of the window. The figure of third party software per unit sold is only really important when the competitors are within reach of each other. It's useless when the leader is at least 10 million ahead. Even if the ratio of third party software per hardware is lower, there will be enough actual user to absorb you, and you still end up with more money.

Here is another stat for you... in its *best* year, the PS2 did just over 20mill software sales. Last year the DS was just shy of 40mill (an all-time record, for any year on any device in Japan).

I remember reading an interview with Sega years ago where it was Implied that why third party developers were supporting the XBox more than the Gamecube was that on a Nintendo platform your main competition is Nintendo; everyone knows that 2/3-3/4 of all software sales on a Nintendo system goes to Nintendo (as compared to 1/4-1/3 for first parties on other platforms) but if the left over market share is larger on a Nintendo system than it is on a competition system Nintendo still will recieve heavy support.

i honestly think that a big problem is 3rd parties release crap on the ds, and put more work into there psp releases, look at the quality and effort put into GTA on the psp. It's not a surprise it sold well. The only way for third parties to sell well is to make good games, or at least bring established franchises. Too many companies simply make a crappy version of what nintendo has already made. How many Brain Age wannabees has Japan seen? Final Fantasy III, Dragon Quest Monsters, even the poorly review Tomagchi title have all sold over a million. Love and Berry is getting close, and as more big franchises come to the DS you're going to have more 3rd party titles with a million+ in sales. Again I find too often that 3rd parties are not leaders they're followers, it's like they need to be told what to sell, since Microsoft and Sony follow a comfortable formula(similiar control setup, focus on graphics) and they don't often use their 1st parties to pioneer new gameplay, it does allow 3rd parties to feel at ease developing for them, simply to use existing franchises with a push on graphics aside from other prcoccessor related elements. But where nintendo is concerned they keep throwing curve balls: 2 screens, touch screen, motion controls, connectivity, and more often then not I believe Nintendo has this amazing vision of gameplay and they just role with it. but more often then not it takes 3rd parties a long time to "get it". Hence they often follow up Nintendo with wannabe titles, and reserve their bigger budgets and established franchises for the comfortable platforms. So in part you can blame Nintendo for not aiding 3rd parties see their vision, and you can blame 3rd parties for not taking more of a chance. now that the Wii and DS are seeing succesful hardware sales hopefully that will change.

I am pretty sure that the majority of those were nintendo based IP's. That is nintendo's strongest point. I have a wii.... I expect a mario game. I purchased a zelda game. I am looking forward to the metroid games. I hope starfox and donkey kong country make some type return on the wii. This is not even touching on the subjects of aquired franchises like pokemon or new exclusive IP's. What has gotten to me though is how these titles are milked for the casual gamers. So it is not a bad thing that Nintendo makes great games it more of a bad thing if their games,( like brain age, animal crossing, nintendogs, mario, starfox, advanced wars, kirby, zelda and many others) net the majority of those sales. And I am hard pressed to believe those software numbers. Can you show me a link? I could of sworn that I read that PS2 software sold topped 1 billion. That would be pretty hard to do in 7 years if your *Best* year did 20 million.

Ps2 did around 100 mil...

Well the real problem for the PSP is in Japan . If you look at the USA numbers ,PSP has sold some 29 million games for 7.6 million consoles sold so somewhere near the 4 games for console sold .The DS has sold 40 million games for 10.5 million consoles ....somewhere near the 4 games for console sold .So the attach ratio for DS and PSP in North America is more or less the same .The european numbers must be along these seeing as games as Tekken DR ,Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and GTA of the PSP have been in the Top Ten with the DS ones (Nintendogs ,BT ,Mario principally ) . The real problem is in Japan were the PSP attach ratio is lower than 2 games for console sold while the DS numbers are 4 games per console and 3 times as many DS as PSP sold .Seeing as in Japan there isnt as much piratery as in Europe or USA I wonder why the software sales of the PSP are so low there .Some games as Tales of the World ,Metal Gear PO ,Tales of Destiny 2 and this week Monster Hunter Portable 2 are selling very well ,but those seem to be exceptions and most games wander around the 75K-100K mark ...

So your saying the DS has 4x the 3rd party games, 3x units sold, and it can BARELY muster double the 3rd party games on the PSP? Yet your saying I'm wrong? I am saying every DS and every PSP or almost every one. should be counted as an active consumer. If you think there are 120million active buyers for PS2. Your crazy. That would mean they would be selling around 200,000 to 400,000 a year. Bare minimum. There are 15,000,000 active DS in Japan. 15Million 3rd party. There are 5,000,000 active PSP in Japan. 7Million 3rd party. I bet your 7million 3rd party isnt even counting monster hunter. So that means it has over half the 3rd party units sold. with 1/3rd the consoles sold. That tells me something. The DS people dont buy 3rd party games. They buy nintendo.

read what's underlined and tell me if that makes sense. So you actually believe a 3rd party is more interested in having a better share of games sold per console units than the double of the games but with a lesser ratio. don't use that kind of knowledge if you apply to a 3rd party job.

No, but I'm just saying why is the PSP selling 1.5 3rd party per unit, and DS is selling just under 1? That's a 50% diffrence. Wanna get me on the PS3 vs Wii 3rd party?